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Akshay Kumar's martial arts initiative is a huge hit

Angered by a stream of reports showing violence against women, the actor took it upon himself to empower women with free training in martial arts, for self-defence.

The initiative at this point“So far, the initiative is active in the city of Mumbai, where 3-4,000 women have graduated with certificates showing a three-month crash course in basic self-defense martial art techniques. By August 12, 2015, another 600 women graduated from his crash course in self-defense.”

Akshay on his work“Actually, it is sad that a woman has to learn self-defence. Why should they be living in fear? They should be shopping, they should be enjoying themselves. They should be living in harmony with their environment. Not constantly in fear of being attacked. But we have come to such a time that you have to take care of yourself. So I teach them subtle and overt self-defence. In another three days, 600 more girls are going to graduate; I train about 110 to 120 girls in one class, so we already have three classes going on now. Every month, I train about 300 girls. We don’t charge them anything. And they come from all walks of life – professionals, housewives, house maids, even women from slum colonies. It is also essential for women to be as real about this as possible. For example, if a girl goes to work in a dress or a saree, I want her to come to class in that same dress or saree. Because when an attacker approaches you, you are obviously not going to change into trackpants. You need to deal with the situation as you are. So it’s very, very practical that way. I also challenge woman’s tendency to freeze in fear. I tell her, ‘your attacker is more afraid than you. It’s only when you don’t do anything and just freeze, that he takes advantage.’ The first thing you should do is scream out as loudly as possible. Show that you will fight. Just scream. If he grabs your hand and there’s no resistance, and you are just paralysed in fear, he will take advantage.”

Personal trigger for this initiative“After the Nirbhaya case in December 2012, one saw so many instances of women being abused, gang-raped, and the media was so aggressive in projecting these crimes; they were just going on and on... from Bihar to Delhi and Mumbai... I got sickened by it all. As a trained martial arts fighter, it made me angry to see so many women being subjected to such crimes. I felt somebody had to take a little initiative.”

Goals“I have urged the government to make it a compulsory subject in schools, just like physics, chemistry and biology; this should be made a part of the curriculum. It’s so essential for everyone to live a life equipped with the art of self-defence and a sense of discipline.”

Long term vision “I have wanted to open a martial arts school for so many years, but I don’t see any others joining in the initiative. Nobody gives place, or takes up with the issue. I even remember going to a corporate to get official sponsorship. And the person I met said, ‘why don’t you look into cricket.” I said, F***! How about prioritising women’s safety for a change!”